Playing Go in a sumo ring

Since I have moved to England in Autumn 2012, I have played more Go tournaments than I would have ever thought of. One day in Spring 2013 I logged on to an online Go platform and read about the Osaka Go camp August 2013 in Japan. It sounded like the right combination of joy and learning, and it didn’t take me long to sign up.

That was certainly one of my best decisions that year, so in this story I’d like to write you a bit about my experience in Japan.

The Go camp was held at a Sumo training center, so some of the tables were in a Sumo ring that you would now and then stumble over. Casual playing and invidual learning usually last till late in the night.

We had professional Go training and a camp league where we would play with each other.

Congratulations to Oscar Selby, 7 kyu from Epsom, for winning the 2013 Youth Grand Prix with an outstanding 1411 points - more than twice the number of his next challenger!

Second came Edmund Smith, 15 kyu from Milton (Cambridge), with 702 points and third was Melchior Chui, 12 kyu from Cambridge, with 499 points.

Full details for 2013 are here

Cash prizes to the top three players are provided from a fund set up in memory of John Rickard, 4 dan, and will be presented at the British Youth Go Championship.

The 4d from Nottingham, Yuanbo Zhang, came out top of the list of 109 players at the 40th London Open. His only loss was in round 6 to Benjamin Drean-Guenaizia, 5d, from France. Benjamin had already lost in round 1 to Andre Stadtler, 3d Germany, but lost on SOS tie-break to Yuanbo. Pierre Paga, 4d France, won 5 games to come third on tie-break from the UK's Andrew Simons, 4d.

A new UK player called Tethys, 17k, won 6 games out of six and all on 5 wins won prizes too: Doerte Rueten-Budde, 8k Germany, Patrick Pitters, 1k Germany, Francisco Divers, 1k London, and Stephan Kunne, 1d Germany. All on 4 wins received a certificate. Results

Also getting prizes were the Finnish winner and runner up in the Lightning: Mikko Siukola, 4d, and Janne Nikula, 1d.

Two teams representing Oxford and Cambridge came together at the venue of the London Open for a two round match. This was at the invitation of WBaduk who sponsored the match and broadcast the games on Korean Go Server with the aid of BGA game recorders. Players represented both the current students and alumni.

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table align=center> OxfordCambridge
Matthew Macfadyen
Tony Lou Yuxiang
Junnun Jiang
Andrew Simons
Alex Rix
Chris Bryant

We are delighted that the Nihon Ki-in are planning to send two professionals (Kobayashi Chizu 5p and Minematsu Masaki 6p) to the UK in February/March 2014 and will be present in Bognor Regis during our combined EYGC and British Go Congress.

Final confirmation of their visit and details of the locations around the UK they will be teaching at, hopefully including Scotland for the first time, are still to be decided.

David Ward died in Cambridge in December 2013.

David Ward will be remembered for his determination to succeed at Go. He was also very generous with his time, being willing to play others, no matter what level they were at. He contributed to British Go in many ways including being our analyst for many years, mentoring in the Shodan Challenge, running the London Open for several years and many articles in the British Go Journal.

Go was more than just a game for him, it was a soul mate. We have truly lost a Go friend.

David served on the BGA Council for a short period in 2004; in the same year he was the (unsuccessful) challenger for the British Championship. He was President of the Central London Go Club for many years.

In his memory his widow, Helen, donated the David Ward Cup with an endowment. The cup is awarded each year to the best placed British player at the London Open Go Congress.

Just in case you haven't already heard:

The winner in the Under-20 category (age as at 1st January 2014) will gain a place in the GLOBIS Cup World Youth Go Championship, to be held in Japan on 8 - 11 May 2014 at the Graduate School of Management, GLOBIS University in Tokyo, Japan.

All expenses will be paid, with the exception of the flights.

We have now finished the online league for this year and once again the winners are:

Edinburgh 1

Congratulations to the team and their captain, Martha McGill.

Winning promotion from division 2 to division 1 are their fellow Scots:

Glasgow

Winning promotion from division 3 to division 2 are

Milton Keynes

Alas there have to be losers and this year the relegation victims are

CLGC B (from division 1 to division 2)
Edinburgh 2 (from division 2 to division 3)

Meanwhile the not-quite-so-proud winners of the "Wooden spoon" at the bottom of division 3 are:

St Albans Kyus

Who can't sack their captain 'cous it's me.....

Well done again to Edinburgh and we look forward to another good season next year.

Please could everyone let me know as soon as possible that their teams can play again next year.

The website for these events has now moved to www.britgo.org/eygc2014 and www.britgo.org/eygc2014/british.

The pages have been updated with more information and there are now entry forms for the EYGC and BGC online, together with the ability to pay for entry to the BGC, and a link for booking accommodation at Butlins.

The 2014 AGM for the British Go Association will be held on 1st March 7:30pm as part of the British Go Congress at Butlins Resort, Bognor Regis

Any members with motions for inclusion on the Agenda are requested to send them to the Secretary by 15th January.